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Donald Goerke, Creator of SpaghettiOs, Dies at 83

Donald Goerke, a Campbell Soup Company executive whose nonlinear approach to pasta resulted in SpaghettiOs, died Sunday at his home in Delran, N.J. He was 83.

The cause was heart failure, his son David said.

Introduced in 1965, SpaghettiOs has been a fixture in the American pantry ever since. Its memorable advertising jingle — “Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs!” — sung by the pop singer Jimmie Rodgers, is indelibly lodged in the public consciousness. More than 150 million cans of SpaghettiOs are sold each year, a spokeswoman for Campbell, based in Camden, N.J., said Wednesday.

Mr. Goerke, who worked for Campbell from 1955 until he retired in 1990, also created the company’s Chunky soup line.

Donald Edward Goerke was born in Waukesha, Wis., on Aug. 8, 1926. (The family name is pronounced GUR-key.) He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from what was then Carroll College in Waukesha and an M.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin.

Photo

In 35 years at Campbell, Donald Goerke refashioned spaghetti for children with SpaghettiOs and also created Chunky soup.Credit
Campbell Soup

Besides his son David, Mr. Goerke is survived by another son, Brian; a daughter, Ann Nassoura; a brother, Fred; and seven grandchildren. His wife, the former June Marie Uthus, died in 2008.

Mr. Goerke was a marketing manager with Franco-American, then a division of Campbell, when he was asked to supervise the development of a new canned pasta for children.

The shape was crucial on two counts. The first was durability: it had to withstand canning and reheating. The second was damage control: long pasta and young children mix dangerously, with child, chair and walls ending up beribboned with dripping strands.

A simple “O,” Mr. Goerke realized, would solve both problems. Its stable shape allowed a thinner strand of pasta to be used, making the reheated product less gummy. It also fit tidily in the bowl of a spoon.

Shapes considered and rejected by Mr. Goerke’s team included baseballs, cowboys, spacemen and stars.

A version of this article appears in print on January 14, 2010, on page A35 of the New York edition with the headline: Donald Goerke, 83, Creator of SpaghettiOs. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe